The White House press office released a statement Thursday saying, "President Obama offers his congratulations to Julia Gillard on her assumption of the position of Prime Minister of Australia and on the historic step of becoming Australia's first female prime minister.

We could create a long-term game out of the following: Which countries (and how many of them) get at least one female head of state (or its equivalent in power) before the United States does?

My guess is that quite a few do. It's not that Americans are so much more scared of women at the helm but that the political system here makes it harder to get women elected. The two-party system, in particular, makes all this much trickier, because it encourages dualistic thinking of all types.

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